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Music as Propaganda: Art at the Command of Doctrine in the People's Republic of China
Author(s): Arnold Perris

Source: Ethnomusicology , Jan., 1983, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 1-28
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
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MUSIC AS PROPAGANDA: ART AT THE COMMAND OF
DOCTRINE IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Arnold Perris
T he political control of music and other arts for propaganda by total-

itarian governments has frequently provoked the censure of ob-
servers in the Western democracies.l The control of art for official
information goes against the grain of the creative spirit, we suppose. Can
an artistic mind function fully if bound to the strictures of a political
ideology? Our judgment, colored by the nineteenth-century attitude of the
artist's will as paramount and inviolable, is that extramusical controls
must ultimately diminish quality and inhibit imagination. But in this
setting if the artist concurs with the official ideology, is there an inhibition
to the artistic will?2 Which comes first, the "success" (aesthetic quality)
of the art or the success (the accuracy and effectiveness) of the ideological
message?
The Westerner's presumptions arise in part because the term propa-
ganda has acquired an odious meaning: it is a technique of distortion,
often with evil intent. A more neutral definition, however, is that it is "the
spreading of ideas, information or rumor for the purpose of helping or
injuring an institution, a cause, or a person" (Webster-Merriam). By such
a definition, music to enhance religious practice is a medium for propa-
ganda. In fact, the medium, the musical substance, may itself be a non-
verbal information of clear intent and effectiveness. The sound of a pipe
organ will immediately suggest a religious service to many Americans, so
limited has the venue for hearing organ literature become in this country.
Beethoven's choice of the "Ode to Joy" for the Ninth Symphony was to
"spread ideas." Surely no one will disagree that the singing commercials
of radio and television are an art of persuasion, if not rumor. Many songs
of protest, satire, praise or hate from all times fall into the category of
propaganda as seductive or militant tools for mind control.3
What is the difference between such musical messages in historical or
current use in Western societies and the function of music as a political
tool in totalitarian states? The difference is that the content of the musical
work is not left to the composer's free choice, nor to the practice of
censorship-whether explicit or by prevailing morality (which may fall
Final version, rec'd: 6/9/82

0014-1836/83/2701-001$1.40 O 1983 Society for Ethnomusicology, Inc.

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2 ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, JANUARY 1983
behind the advance of the doctrine); nor does the w

endure by virtue of the audience's taste (which ma
success). This music, like all art produced in a total
affirm the state ideology and the theory and pract
program. In the European monarchies the artist wa
write, only what he could not write (for example, V
the censors of Rigoletto around 1850).4 As distingu
ship-a ban-an official doctrine is developed to in
well as delimit composers, performers and audie
function of all forms of public expression is to state or
goals of the nation. Depending on the strictness in i
trine, or putting it into practice, there may also b
society a variety of artistic expressions, old-fashione
even presumably innocuous-but the rulers' inten
thought.
The use of music for mind control is scarcely founded in contem-
porary Marxism. It is a function of ritual importance in many tribal so-
cieties, perhaps in all societies. It was an accepted tenet in Plato's Re-
public: only appropriate songs in affirmative modes must be included in
the education of the future elite (1930: I, 174-5, 247, 292-3; xiv, note C;
also Plato 1924: 143, 145). In ancient China the Confucian belief held that
melodies were an indicator of the ethical level of a people. "The melodies
of an age of good order indicate composure and enjoyment. . . . The airs
of a state going to ruin are expressive of sorrow and troubled thought.
There is an interaction between the words and airs [of a people] and the
character of their government" (Legge/Chai 1967:II, 93-4; compare I,
216-7). With these definitions we may deduce a parallel with the didactic
music in the modern authoritarian state: "In the well-governed Con-
fucianist state, music meant for pleasure does not exist" (Gulik 1969:27).5
In Mao's theory, all music (and other art) must state an official message.
This implies there can be no "innocuous" music.
Lenin and Stalin, and subsequently Mao, discerned the potential of
the arts for their new and vulnerable societies.6 They early commenced
control of "negative" music and of those who taught it and performed it.
The complementary need was also perceived: music of high quality and
correct ideology must be created to replace music that in any way, overt
or subtle, suggested a counterculture or might become a vehicle for
unsanctioned criticism. Further, they stated that all art must appeal to the
masses, the primary consumers, a new audience not prepared-like the
bourgeois class-to listen, much less to read. For Marx and his twentieth-
century disciples, art of all time expressed a meaning and defined a social
purpose-with some exceptions: the universal appeal, regardless of the

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PERRIS: MUSIC AS PROPAGANDA 3
socioeconomic conditions in which they were

Classical Greek drama and Shakespeare's pl
always served one class or another. In Eur
other art music served the ruling class. The
the Renaissance patron, the German burgher
goers identified classes who made possible, an
their periods. Public music-making was a me
bility. In a Marxist state such bourgeois art
replaced by revolutionary art for the prolet
Mao's China, also for the edification of two o
and the army.7 It is the purpose of this articl
sources that have defined the function of mu
of China, and further, to call attention to th
musical traditions.8
For a theoretical foundation, however, we must begin with Marx and
his associate, Engels. It is also necessary to examine the writings of
Lenin, the first executant of Marx's principles to hold control of a na-
tional government, for the Soviet experience and world Communist
leadership in the 1920s became the model and mentor for China's Com-
munist movement, bound together in "indestructible friendship" in the
Preamble to the first Constitution of the People's Republic of China
(hereafter PRC) in 1954 (Chai 1972:250, 340). To include here even a
summary of the writings of Marx and Lenin on music is not so impractical
as might be supposed. The overriding attention of Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist thinking was not on art or even "culture," but economics and
political control. Only insofar as music and the other arts could serve the
revolution were they discussed. Marx's writing chiefly analyzed the
humanistic impact on capitalism, the alienation of society and the rise of
the bourgeois economics (Baxandall 1974:3-47, esp. 5-8, 44). It appears,
however, that he never got around to setting out a systematic policy for
the arts (ibid.: 47), nor did Lenin (1967:256). I do not find the word music
in indexes of the works of Marx or Lenin, though biographical anecdotes
indicate both men enjoyed some of the art music of their times (Baxandall
1974:154, 51, 82; Lenin 1967:247, 259-60, 235, 231-3).9 In Stalin's period
the concept of Socialist Realism yielded criteria for correct art, though
applications were changeable and ambiguous.lo0
Marxist theorists, including Lenin, held a contempt for music, such
as European opera, which existed solely to please the middle class (Lenin
1967:259-60). Similarly, they condemned music that is experimental or
for the interest of an esoteric circle, or as private expression (art for art's
sake), or music, as vocal or theatre music, which through its texts, lauded
a privileged class, or depicted behavior that was seen as immoral or

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selfish. In both Russia and China these views became codified as artistic
policy. It is a passing irony, however, that Marx, who never faced the
day-by-day administrative responsibilities of Lenin, Stalin or Mao, could
once defend "art for art's sake," when it meant the artist was striving to
free himself from a narrow censorship. He ridiculed the "New Instruc-
tions to Prussian Censors" (1842), which decreed as he perceived them,
commanding "but one mode of expression-moderation; and one color-
gray on gray; one truth-what the government ordains, the sole rationale
in the state. .... Are we to understand quite simply that truth is what the
government ordains?" (Baxandall 1974:59-60). What a plea for liber-
alism! What a dangerous position for one to hold in any modern state built
in Marx's name!
But his was a defense by a radical against a reactionary regime. The
were other calls for tolerance, if not liberalism. Marx, as an historic
materialist, would not discard artistic monuments of the past, includi
those of elitist Greece and imperial Rome, if such ancient accomplish
ments might direct people's minds to socialist construction (Baxanda
1974:42, 136-7). Revolution must therefore stamp out feudal, imperial
and capitalist oppression, but revolution need not stamp out the p
totally. In 1919 Lenin voiced this principle by pointing out that the yo
USSR had an irreplaceable need for the experts trained under Czarism
"men and women who grew up under capitalism, were depraved a
corrupted by capitalism, but steeled for the struggle by it. . . . All t
agronomists, engineers and school teachers were recruited from the
propertied class; they did not drop from the skies. . . . Science and te
nology exist only for the rich; capitalism provides a culture only for
minority" (Lenin 1966:64-5). And in 1920: "We know communism gro
out of capitalism and can be built only from its remnants; they are
remnants, it is true, but there are no others. Whoever dreams of a
mythical communism should be driven from every . . . conference .. ."
(121-2).
In Lenin's Draft Resolution, "On Proletarian Culture" (1920), he
wrote: "Marxism has won its historic significance as the ideology of the
revolutionary proletariat because, far from rejecting the most valuable
achievements of the bourgeois epoch, it has on the contrary, assimilated
and refashioned everything of value in the more than two thousand years
of the development of human thought and culture" (Lenin 1966:148).
Such views were echoed again and again by Mao Zedong. Perhaps
this respect for the past is but the reflection of an educated mind. It also
seems to have been necessary as a defense against the extreme left
opinions of the purists among Russian and Chinese party members. We
note in Mao's writing the approval of past and current world knowledge,

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which might be purified and shaped to serve

achievements, including high art, are still viabl
revolutionary unless interpreted according to
cultural values of the proletariat as well as thos
geoisie bear the imprint of history. Indigenous
tional and folk, contains cultural flaws that are
seductive. A deep affection for specific musical
popular music and the social setting in which
performed, may be inimical to the new society.
composers, however, are experts needed for
years of the new society these experts are yet t
society. Their routines of instruction and mode
down to the next generation. Apolitical artists ar
the new ideology are dangerous. There must be e
artistic controls, but these are redefinable, dep
litical objectives. The writings of the founding
used to support every statement of official cond
those for the arts. I I
The histories of the formative years of both
People's Republic of China reveal how such prob
a curiously similar chronology. 12 The most seri
of the artists and concomitantly their public-a ne
artists. Mao, whose first public writings appear
followers for over twenty years before winning
the country in October 1949. Even less than Cza
nation that Marx had envisioned as the inevitab
revolution. (Marx, however, and later Lenin, no
tial for social change in the great populations of
early faced stubborn opposition from composer
preference for the entrenched repertory, in Ch
mously popular genres of opera with their stories
magical beings, of Buddhist and Confucian mor
romances, and the inveterate depiction of the co
or fools.
Mao was Party Chairman for forty-one years. He was a fluent,
trenchant and instructive writer. The five volumes of his Selected Works
(SW), that is, his writings from 1926-1957, in the official English edition
(published 1961-1977) number nearly 2100 pages. He also left a volume of
poetry. 15 It is from these translations that some of his most significant
statements are quoted here. A basic view of the status of the arts in "New
China" is found in his major policy statement of 1940, "On New Democ-
racy," written for the premier issue of a magazine, Chinese Culture. In it

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we find his confirmation of the value of the past. In a

Want to Build a New China," he wrote: "The new socie
will have not only a new politics and a new economy b
(SW, II, 340). In another section he wrote: "The new po
proletariat and the Communist Party entered the Chin
and as a result, the new cultural force.. . has mad
in ... the social sciences and arts and letters, ... includ
the cinema, music, sculpture and painting" (372). From
National, Scientific and Mass Culture": "To nourish her own culture
China needs to assimilate a good deal of foreign progressive culture, not
enough of which was done in the past. We should assimilate whatever is
useful to us today not only from present-day socialist and new-democratic
cultures but also from the earlier cultures of other nations, for example,
from the various capitalist countries in the Age of Enlightenment....
Similarly, in applying Marxism to China, Chinese communists must fully
and properly integrate the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete
practice of the Chinese Revolution. . . . Chinese culture should also have
its own form . . . national in form and new democratic, i.e., socialist in
content" (380-1). Here he borrowed Stalin's slogan (see note 10).
Mao gave status to artistic effort by saying: "Revolutionary culture is
a powerful revolutionary weapon for the broad masses of the people. It
prepares the ground ideologically before the revolution comes and is an
important, indeed, essential fighting front in the general revolutionary
front during the revolution . . ." (SW, II: 382).
In 1937 at the central base of the Communist Party and army in
Yan'an (Yenan), an academy for the arts was established and named for
the late revolutionary author, Lu Xun (Lu Hsun). The school's purpose
was the "rectification of people in the arts." 16 Mao called a conference of
literary and art workers to expound the objectives of Communist art and
suggested methods for achieving them. In this context such workers in-
cluded musicians. His two speeches (at the commencement and the close
of the three-week conference) were published as "Talks at the Yenan
Forum on Literature and Art." They became the oracle for artistic
"workers" in the PRC virtually to the present day, amended versions
appearing as major shifts in party policy arose.17 During the Cultural
Revolution the "Talks" were one of the six works to be studied "over
and over again" (Anonymous 1966:13). Here are the essentials.
Mao's first point was (consciously or not, one of the eight Buddhist
principles) adopt the right attitude. He scolded some artists for not hav-
ing grasped or accepted clearly basic Marxist concepts. He chided his
listeners for being unacquainted with the people or with the variety of
audience levels before them. "The cadres, party workers of all types,

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fighters in the army, workers in the factorie

all want to read books and newspapers once t
those who are illiterate want to see plays and
paintings, sing songs and hear music" (SW,
duced a view in a discussion of revolutionary
Lenin: the audience's needs must be recogniz
The first question to be asked, he said, is:
whom? ... This problem was solved long ago by Marxists, especially
Lenin. As far back as 1905 Lenin pointed out emphatically that our litera-
ture and art should 'serve ... the millions and tens of millions of working
people"' (75). Mao's reference is Lenin's article, "Party Organization
and Party Literature." Lenin also wrote: "It will be a free literature,
because it will serve not some satiated heroine, not the bored 'upper ten
thousand' suffering from fatty degeneration, but the millions and tens of
millions of working people-the flower of the country, its strength and
future.. .." (Lenin, CW, v. 10:48-9).
Mao was concerned that there was so much popular taste for the
operas of old China-a taste that has in fact outlived him. 18 Despite this,
he restated his argument that the past still had much to offer and would
provide necessary models of excellence. "We should take over the rich
legacy and the good traditions in literature and art that have been handed
down from the past ages in China and foreign countries, but the aim must
still be to serve the masses of the people (SW, III, 76). It makes a differ-
ence whether or not we have such examples, the difference between
crudeness and refinement, between roughness and polish, between a low
and a high level, and between slower and faster work" (81).
Mao also acknowledged a transcendent function of the arts. "Al-
though man's social life is the only source of literature and art and is
incomparably livelier and richer in content, the people are not satisfied
with life alone and demand literature and art as well. Why? Because,
while both are beautiful, life as reflected in works of literature and art can
and ought to be on a higher plane, more intense, more concentrated, more
typical, nearer the ideal, and therefore more universal than actual every-
day life." (The Romantic creed of the nineteenth century is echoed in that
statement.)19 "Revolutionary literature and art should create a variety of
characters out of real life and help the masses propel history forward"
(SW, III, 81).
Mao also discussed the dilemma in raising the cultural standards of
the masses while creating art that they could immediately understand.
"Popular works are simple and plainer, and therefore more readily ac-
cepted by the broad masses of people today. Works of a higher quality,
being more polished, are more difficult to produce and in general do not

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circulate so easily and quickly among the masses at

to popularize some works of higher quality even now
War of Resistance against Japan) (82). "Our speciali
pay attention to the songs of the masses . . ." (8
gifted writers and artists "must go among the mass
time, unreservedly and whole-heartedly, go into t
gle . . . to observe, experience, study and analyze al
of people, all the classes . . . the raw materials of lit
then can they proceed to creative work . . ." (81). P
recommending that composers and performers learn
popular forms, village operas, song and dance show
see below), types that his professional audience wo
In one passage Mao, as the pragmatic Marxist, ide
for judging art, the political and the artistic. He mai
in all times have had such criteria. "All classes in all class societies
invariably put the political criterion first and the artistic criterion secon
The bourgeoisie always shut out proletarian literature and art, how
great their artistic merit. The proletariat must similarly distinguish amo
the literary and art works of past ages and determine its attitude to
them only after examining their attitude to the people and whether or n
the art had any progressive significance historically. . . . The more
actionary their content and the higher their artistic quality, the m
poisonous they are to the people, and the more necessary it is to r
them (89). ... Works of art which lack artistic quality have no forc
however progressive they are politically. Therefore, we oppose both
tendency to produce works of art with a wrong political viewpoint and t
tendency towards the 'poster and slogan style,' which is correct in
litical viewpoint but lacking in artistic power" (90). He ridiculed
zealots who urged artists to substitute Marxist dogma for artistic m
(94).
The immediate response to the "Talks" was the conspicuous use of
folk material in musico-dramatic entertainments (Snow, E., 1961:109-16;
Judd 1981). The initial version of The White Haired Girl appeared, using
folk tunes (yangge, see below), a dramatic tale that went through various
forms to become one of the major works of the Cultural Revolution. It
was also in Yan'an in 1940 that the Liberation forces began the organized
use of music for propaganda to the populace by broadcasting revolution-
ary songs and choruses over its 300-watt transmitter (BR, February 22,
1982:20). A revolutionary song was composed for the text of Mao's early
instructions on conduct for the Red Army. The Communists were de-
termined to show the people in the farms and villages that the Red Army
men were not like the brutal, pillaging troops of the past (Mao: SW, IV,

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155-6). It is titled "The Three Main Rules o

Points for Attention" (ex. 1). The text dates fr
of the anonymous melody is unknown, but as
the troops to sing this song, as well as "Th
1974:297).
In his talk, "The United Front in Cultural W
he said: "In the arts, we must have not only m
Ch'in operas [that is, the old-style opera o
formed the main part of the ancient state of
transliteration] and yangko [(yangge) folk-da
popular among the peasants]. We must not on
and new yangko, but also utilize and graduall
troupes and the old yangko teams that compr
teams" (SW, III, 186). And underscoring the im
for the People's Liberation Army, he declared
is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army
(SW, III, 185).20
The next pertinent, published document by
to "music workers," August 24, 1956. There w
the talk, and apparently it never received fina
compilation by those present, circulated amon
is spurious, but it is not a contradiction of his
published in English in BR, September 14, 19
There is little new in these statements. He s
national music, the implication being-as in other matters-that the
Chinese must not slavishly follow the Soviet's lead. It is a paradox that
both Russia and China accepted the need for a nationalist framework to
carry on their revolutions,22 though Marx's presumption was that com-
munism was an inevitable world movement, one which would supersede
national boundaries (though not necessarily national traits and cultural
traditions). Mao instructed the musicians: "In music you may apply ap-
propriate foreign principles and use foreign musical instruments. But still
there must be national characteristics. . . . The arts are inseparable from
the customs, feelings and even the language of the people, from the his-
tory of the nation. There is a large measure of national conservatism in the
arts which can persist for even thousands of years. Ancient art can still be
appreciated by later generations. .. ." He cemented his argument with
the most venerable reference: "Confucius was an educator and a mu-
sician. He ranked music second among the 'six courses'" (13).23 M
did not hesitate to cite this most ancient curriculum in other educational
settings also.24 Mao noted the systematic organization of musical styles
during the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the many styles which came from

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Example 1. The Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points f
Sempo c Iqua 0c A
1. Rev- o- lu- tion'ry army men must know,

2. Sec- ond, don't take a sin- gle needle or thread,
3. Dis'- pline's Three Rules we must carry through,
4. Sec- ond, pay fairly for what we buy,
5. Fourth- ly, if we dam- age an- y- thing,
6. Sixth, take care, don't dam- age peo- pie's crops,
7. Eighth, don't ill- treat pris- on- ers of war,
8. Know rev'- lu- tion'ry dis'- pline's ev'- ry point,
I. Dis'- pline's Three Rules, Eight Points for At- ten-tion:

2. Peo- pie will support and wel- come us;
3. Eight Points for At-ten- tion we must bear in mind:
4. Buy fair, sell fair, and be reas'- na- ble;
5. Pay the full price, not a half cent less;
6. Eith- er on march or in bat- tie;
7. Don't hit, swear at or search them.
8. Peo- pie's fighters love the peo- pie e'er,
1. First, o- bey or- ders in all of our ac- tions,

2. Third- ly, turn in ev'- ry- thing we cap- ture,
3. First, we must be po- lite when we're speak-ing to the masses,
4. Third- ly, don't for- get to person'- ly re- turn,
5. Fifth, don't hit peo- pie or swear at them,
6. Sev- enth, do not take liber- ties with women,
7. Ev'- ry- bod- y must con- scious- ly observe the dis'- pline,
8. De- fend the moth- er- land and for- ev- er march a- head,
I. March in step, to win vic- to- ry;

2. Strive to light- en peo- pie's bur- dens.
3. Re-spect the peo- pie, don't be ar- ro- gant;
4. Ev'- ry sin- gle thing that we bor- row;
5. To- t'-Iy o- ver- come war- lord- i- s- m;
6. Get rid of all habits de- ca- dent;
7. Mu- tu'lly su- per- vise, and not vio- late it.
8. Peo- pie o'er the land support and wel- come us.

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Central Asia, Korea and India. "The playin

meant the loss of our own music. . . . The ind
wholesale absorption of Western culture a
(Marxists are historical materialists: the pres
There were occasional documents on the function of the arts from
other high party leaders during the time period of this study. Premier
Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai) supported the principles of the Yan'an Forum in
his talk, "On Literature and Arts" in 1961 (BR, March 30, 1979:9-16),
but he defended as harmless the performance of some traditional Peking
(style) operas, which he was known to enjoy. Another party document is
by the Vice Minister for Propaganda, Zhou Yang (Chou Yang), "The
People's New Literature and Art," in 1953, supporting traditional opera
(Crozier 1970:176-8, an excerpt). Even more liberal a mood appeared, a
short-lived one, in early 1956 with the party slogan, "Let a hundred
flowers blossom, a hundred schools of thought contend" (a reference
from classical literature). These directions, primarily in literature, cannot
be discussed here.25
An anonymous document appropriate to cite here is the legal basis
for the practice of the arts: the first Constitution of the People's Republic,
September, 1954 (nominally in effect till 1975). In Chapter 3, Fundamental
Rights and Duties, Article 95, states: "The People's Republic of China
safeguards the freedom of citizens to engage in scientific research, literary
and artistic creation and other cultural activities. The state encourages
and assists the creative endeavours of citizens in science, education,
literature, art and other cultural pursuits" (Chai 1972:272). Since it was
the Party which drafted the national Constitution, we should note there-
fore the ideological foundation implied in these rights. In September 1956
the Constitution of the Communist Party of China was adopted by the
Eighth National Congress. Article 50 states that it is the responsibility of
Party organizations to "carry on propaganda among the masses, to raise
the levels of their ideology and political understanding . .. and to lead the
masses so that they can give full play to their initiative and creative
ability . . ." (Chai 1972:293).26 The latest draft of the latest (fourth)
national Constitution (1982) confirms these rights in Article 45 (BR, May
10, 1982:35-6).
In this short summary of the Marxist and Maoist direction of music in
China, some of the complexities and problems of a nationwide artistic
control have been identified. There are three other shaping factors in-
herent in Chinese music that must be weighed. These factors could not
help but affect the acculturation of an alien political, social and aesthetic
ideology. Each of them demands a study by itself. I can only discuss them
briefly here.

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1. There is historical precedence in China for a nation

for example, in the great Han dynasty (202 B.C.-120
Dynasty (589-618) and the Yuan Dynasty (1279-136
Bureau of the Han had as its functions the composition o
entertainment, and the systematic collection of folk son
court might judge its efficacy; according to the theory
beginning of this article, the songs would reveal the mo
The correct "mood" was set by the chief of state, the em
heaven, whose wish was law. The Confucian precepts w
the court and educated class continued this custom of
capital to affirm society's values. In the fragments of
Music" (Yueh Chi or Yue Chi), included in the Li Chi, w
the early rulers formed the ii [rituals] and yue [music]
not to satisfy the mouth, stomach, ear and eye, but rat
people to moderate their likes and hates, and bring the
correct direction in life" (Thrasher 1981:24; also: Legge/
Mao himself in many respects played the role of emp
period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was passi
his picture hung in places of honor in public buildings a
peasant homes where images once stood (Oxsenberg 197
man became an object of obedience and veneration. His
the modern Classics, cited for official guidance and ins
matters. Mackerras believes that to the Chinese "politics, ethics and
morality are almost synonymous . . . and Maoism is a body of ethics as
well as a system of thought" (Mackerras 1976:165). And Mao was ready
with his plan for social controls. Unlike the Russian revolutionaries, the
Chinese took over the government with an experienced hierarchy in
place, including a large army, and ninety million supporters in the
Liberated Areas. The Party cultural program was ready, with artist orga-
nizations and touring drama companies to take the message of New China
to the whole country (Mills 1979:289). The concept of an official, autho-
rized function for the arts had been passed along, with different criteria,
from antiquity to the twentieth century.
2. The Confucian view accepted an ethical power in music, and
hence, "good" music properly performed maintained a stable society.
While we do not find a systematic or ongoing program for good music
over bad, this concept was in place by the Han Dynasty when Con-
fucianism became the official creed. "Virtuous songs" from the Shih
Ching (Book of Odes), as well as correct musical instruments, were
identified in the imperial councils as antidotes against evil tendencies by
both the ruler and the councillors, and are so cited in the Book of Rites
(Legge/Chai 1967:II, 118-9).28 The reader is cautioned to allow sufficient

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value to this traditional concept: it was not th

ethical meanings, more or less vague, and open
the West we may admit music to be "cheerful
The tradition held that all music expressed ethic
incited concrete behaviors, good or bad. Thi
specious, to most Western musicians, who hold
view that (most) music exists for its own sake
without metaphysical significance. To the mod
metaphysical either, but it is suggestive and em
managed as a popular means of communicati
I do not argue that many early twentieth-ce
or audiences held to such Confucian ideals. O
slaught of both the Republican revolution of 19
education and other contact forced many cultu
Revolution of 1919 in particular attacked the o
ensuing years saw similar objection to the asso
ficial and ethical parameters. Western-style co
lished and fomented a familiarity and adulation
to a Chinese-Western art music, which easily a
training when Soviet Russian specialists domina
agencies following 1949.
Music in the schools, like all aspects of Chine
was and is ever didactic. In the Shanghai dis
healthy sentimental songs from abroad, pop
recent years were replaced by "alternatives" b
were "beautiful, healthy and lively songs which
sung by students everywhere" (BR, December
4, 1982:17-8).29 Shanghai has also been a model
tional campaign for moral education. Rules
motherland, the people and the Communist Part
conscientiously....
were set to music to Keep clothes
help young tidy and
students reme
7, 1981:22). As a cultural outlet music is promot
various genres, vocal and orchestral, and br
Broadcasting Service in Beijing, which devotes o
ming to music. In the present liberal climate W
certos to disco has been aired, even a sample of
February 22, 1982:23).
3. Still another tradition that supports state
Chinese expectation of a verbal "message," sug
overwhelming proportion of their music. In m
are "title lovers" (Han 1978:17-38; Han 1979:1

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in the instrumental repertory, primarily based on pu

given a title. Whether or not the musical substance
matic, much less naturalistic, the listener's attention
is not left to muse on his own. Further, the verbal m
to offer an ethical statement, to be a refining influe
ences, as "The Spring River in the Flowery Moonligh
characteristically state an age-old reverence for natur
classics, especially in the Analects and obviously i
(Granet 1932:19fJ). Chinese literature is centered aro
of the seasons. Song titles and other musical titles, su
are allusions to Classical models. Possibly they sugge
or gesture, for example, rivers and mountains were p
or divine entities in themselves.31
"The Phoenix Searches for Its Mate" (Feng Ch'iu Huang) is a ch'in
(zither) composition whose literary traditions begin with a Han dynasty
poet and extend 1700 years to the Ming. It is a classical piece, and in
discussing it Lieberman states that a performance even today "calls into
play a wealth of allusion which can only enliven the music in the percep-
tion of the educated Chinese, for whom all of these references are familiar
through poetry, prose and drama .... For the modem scholar [i.e.,
scholar-musician] . . . the music resonates not only in his heart, but also
across the ages" (Lieberman 1975:129-32).32 Mao's education, though it
did not reach a formal university program, was a classical one. He was
ambivalent about such a foundation, but he called upon it time and time
again.33 It was clearly a ready reference for him and his audiences at the
time. Despite his acceptance of Marx's view that mythology is erased by
scientifically informed thinking (SW, I: 341),34 Mao was unable to com-
pose one poem without the traditional use of a mythical allusion from
classical writings and other similar sources (Barnstone 1972:18-25).
In another traditional form well known to the Chinese, the ubiquitous
theatre music was obvious in its messages. Plots were infused with reaf-
firmations of traditional behavior-filial responsibility, respect for the
elderly and those in authority, self-sacrifice for family or state, and the
words sung were, of course, explicit.35 At the court, the city theatre or
the itinerant shows in the villages, the listener absorbed a moral system
while being entertained.
The habit of supplying descriptive titles to instrumental pieces con-
tinues down to the present moment. In December 1980 I witnessed a solo
piano recital in St. Louis by Professor Zhou Guang-Ren of the Central
Conservatory of Music, Beijing. Without exception the ten selections
played, all composed since 1949, offered descriptive titles, and all were
said to be based on traditional melodies, for example, "Autumn Moon

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over a Silent Lake, an "ancient Cantonese ins

setting by Chen Pei-Xuan (1973). It was no sur
audience at once set to listening, amidst the k
elements which would depict the scene or event
by the virtuous tale attached to some pieces
justify a non-Socialist (and "useless"?) ascriptio
fact, the composers were exploring the severa
from Liszt and Chopin to Debussy, Bartok and
is still a youthful genre in China. The titles app
were all but irrelevant to form and content. If indeed the articulated
"message" was irrelevant, then most of the pieces were a form of protest,
possibly quite unconsciously so: these works were art for art's sake.
The result of this long custom, it seems to me, is that Chinese lis-
teners expect some direction for their thoughts in listening to music.
Abstract titles and terminology were not characteristic: there was no
equivalent of the sonata, for example, to dominate the Chinese concert
repertory in the last two hundred years. This is not to say there are no
examples of absolute forms; variation was used, and also a kind of suite,
but the literary factor is still tenacious.36 The overwhelming evidence is
that even instrumental compositions were provided with descriptive titles
that evoked literary and pictorial responses. Program notes, as in the
publication of ch'in music, were expected-and this practice continues
into socialist publications now (Han 1978:26-9, 32-5).
I do not suppose that listeners in the past or present found no enjoy-
ment if they ignored the title given. Neither do I assume that they dutifully
contemplated each topic. But the tradition of a literary representation in
the nonvocal music, and patently in the theatre and vocal music, was
conspicuous and remains so. There is never a need to ask the question as
the Western listener does in some contexts: What does this music
"mean"? Everyone knows what the music "means."37 In the People'
Republic a (public) musical performance is never for an aesthetic or recre
ational experience alone; it must always demonstrate ideological value,
and this must be verbalized lest the listener fail to participate fully in th
performance-always an official occasion. In a 1980 concert the Central
Philharmonic Society of Beijing performed "a symphonic epic, Ambush
from All Directions, and also "a capriccio, 'Tour to a Yi Village' " (BR
October 26, 1979:31; see Fang 1981:2, 5). (The Yi are one of the fifty-odd
conspicuously protected minorities in China.) (For another program of
new symphonic works see BR, May 25, 1981:28.) Didacticism is unmis-
takable in the libretto of a revolutionary opera, as Taking Tiger Mountain
by Strategy or The Red Lantern (L. Snow 1972:40-98; 256-303 respec
tively), but also in a traditional opera, expurgated or otherwise provided

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with a doctrinaire interpretation, for example, Monke

Upside Down, an episode from the classical sixteen
Journey to the West.38 Indeed, it may be impossible
composition in a public performance which lacks an objective
reference.39
I submit that Chinese tradition supports the twin functions of aes-
thetic enjoyment and ideological instruction as a familiar condition of
music. Whether or not the verbal message achieves its desired result must
be the concern of both art and politics. And these concerns may be
antagonistic. If the musical language is agreeable, the music composition
will be accepted-and with it the political message, at least pro forma. If
the music is boring or puzzling, the ideological message is lost, for no one
will care to listen. Mao clearly knew this, as did Lenin, and spoke for the
necessity and the power of artistic quality (Lenin 1966:251). A positive
message clothed in shoddy art was not condoned.
Mao's objectives for art, we may deduce from his writings-, were
threefold. One purpose was to promote nationalism. The second was a
kind of artistic populism, the creation and presentation of music and the
other arts for the masses. Surpassing these two was a third value neces-
sary in a proletarian society: a culture that would support socialism and
the dictatorship of the Communist Party in the name of the proletariat.
Mao had the weight and the habits of the Chinese past to assist him in
promoting the first of these two objectives. The growing appeal of demo-
cracy and socialism also argued for the second. The third is ever de-
manded by the aggressive vitality of a Marxist-Socialist movement. The
individual attributes of the artists will support or blend or contest with any
or all of these objectives. The contemporary author-composer who re-
vises The Jade Necklace, retaining the old musico-dramatic forms,
provides entertainment, but his message is trivial and probably counter-
productive. In the present climate of reaction to the narrowness of the
Cultural Revolution, theatre works to display the party line are being
staged and -as always-the efforts are well publicized. In October 1981 a
festival in Beijing offered ten operas in various traditional styles with
topical plots. Cai Jiu Compensates for the Ducks was praised because it
"vividly portrays the reconcilation after the 'cultural revolution' and the
implementation of the new rural policy" (BR, November 16, 1981:30).
The opportunity to hear several new operas was at once appealing-and
the familiar musical styles carried the message persuasively.
What of the composer, perhaps after a brush with an avant garde
Japanese or Western musician, whose curiosity prods him to explore
atonal or other nontraditional Western sounds, whether in opera or an-
other genre? Such music is revolutionary and progressive in the history of

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the art, but it contradicts artistic popularism, th

simultaneously the indispensable third.
At the height of the Cultural Revolution only e
music were permitted for performance or study from
to the professional theatres, including film (Witke
1977:196).40 All other musico-dramatic works we
Seven of these were for the stage-five operas, su
(in traditional music style) and two ballets, Th
Women and The White Haired Girl (European balle
ing and Western harmonic style and orchestratio
instruments). The eighth was the Yellow River Pi
the last part of a cantata composed by Hsien H
Yan'an.41 The national conservatories were clos
many of the faculty, students, and artists assign
oppose the reform of the national (Peking) opera s
and cultural crime (Crozier 1970:286; Mills 1979:297; Ch'en 1970:133;
Pusey 1969:53). It was likewise dangerous for anyone to perform Western
music. In the behind-the-scenes factional struggle for national control,
there were contradictions and discrepancies, which were exposed in the
arts. In 1973 the Philadelphia Orchestra was invited to perform, and did so
to great acclaim. After their departure, the Party newspaper, The Peo-
ple's Daily (Renmin Bao) excoriated the concerts as examples of bour-
geois decadence: the orchestra had included Beethoven's Pastorale
Symphony, Respighi's Pines of Rome and Dvorak's New World (Witke
1977:457-9; U.S. News and World Report, June 3, 1974, 58). They also
performed the Yellow River Concerto with a noted Chinese pianist. Dur-
ing those years some children furtively practiced their Chopin behind
curtained windows, according to PRC cultural officials visiting the United
States in March, 1980.42 Until 1976 the populace was compelled to hear
the model works over and over again, on the stage, in films, on television,
the music played over radio and via loud speakers in public spaces (Terrill
1970:50; Committee 1971:250-9; 264-5). All traditional operas were
banned, and even other revolutionary operas composed since 1949. One
of the latter was August First Storm, in which the respected premier,
Zhou Enlai, was the hero in a 1927 incident-a subject that would have
deflected attention from the ambitious radical leaders, who became
known as the Gang of Four. The most conspicuous of the four was Jiang
Qing (Chiang Ch'ing), who claimed credit for revising all the scripts of the
model works to exemplify the correct party line (Chiang Ch'ing 1968:38-
43).43 The plots invariably placed a heroic woman in final command, not a
new theme during the post-1949 years (nor unheard of in the great reper-
tory of Chinese operas), but one which blatantly and tenaciously sug-

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gested that Mme. Jiang was the only appropriate succe

Gang of Four was arrested after the death of Mao in 1976
direction altered with insistent propaganda.44 Perhaps a
history of music, East or West, has a society endured s
censorship of the performing arts: for nearly ten year
million people were required to hear one of a group of ei
in whole or in part, on virtually every musical occasion
Mao and all cultural controllers are ultimately depen
will of the artists within their jurisdiction. To the extent th
be persuaded to express political objectives in an effect
national music be true to the ideology. But the will of
century artist is vastly different from that of past soc
nation can long hold its culture sealed off from the re
ideas. Today's musicians are informed and politicized
earlier society knew. Perhaps there is a comparison with
societies, for example, that of medieval Europe, or of a
which the composers-performers were imbued with a si
pose for their ritual music-anonymous composers of Ch
Polynesian invocations or African prayer-songs.
The artist of China must be brought to such a uniformit
artistic individuality. But cultural and political awarene
stimulate the artists' desires for control of their craft. In a doctrinaire
government the artists, like all citizens, are explicitly and systematically
politicized. The more dogmatic and autocratic the state censorship, the
more the artists-or some artists-will struggle, dissemble and compro-
mise their artistic judgments and preferences. Is it possible that an au-
thoritarian regime can long mold all artists into "one mode of expres-
sion ... one color," as Marx scorned; "gray on gray; one truth-what
the government ordains, the sole rationale in the state," and to prohibit all
alternatives? Mao observed that a people cannot be satisfied by the
phenomena of their daily routine; they crave art to lift them outside them-
selves. Artists are among these same people. Their aesthetic needs by the
nature of their uncommon talent are more vivid, more imaginative, than
those of the masses.
In discussions with intellectuals from the PRC during the past year I
heard no protests against the concept of art for art's sake; high artisti
quality and invention are admired; the universality of the art of Beethoven
and Shakespeare is greatly respected. On the other hand, some hold
firmly to the view that all art expresses a social message, but the intelli
gentsia were angered by the Gang of Four's fanatical censorship, which
made art politics. "They turned opera into a lecture," one professo
remarked to me.45

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Since the fall of the Gang of Four a range

alizations has occurred, including petitions b
artistic freedoms (BR, October 21, 1980:4-5). But this is a society in
which everyday behaviors are directed by the state. We must ask if such
calls for artistic freedom are genuine "grass roots," or directed obedience
to the current policy-or both? In the current review of all Mao's theories
a new "Guiding Ideology for Literature and Art" has been promulgated.
We now read that the "Talks at the Yenan Forum" contain "incorrect
formulations." Art is not subordinate to politics, and to use the politic
criterion as the primary method to judge the merits of an artistic work
wrong (BR, May 3, 1982:3). History indicates the artist is highly indi-
vidual, varied, exploratory and sometimes apolitical and antisocial. I sub
mit, therefore, that in an authoritarian setting, even one with a long h
tory of autocratic rule, the artist at some point inevitably becomes t
adversary of the state. We may expect Chinese musicians will continue
use music as propaganda for their own ends, as ideology or art or bot
NOTES
This article is an expansion of a paper read at the annual meeting

of the Society in November, 1980. The historical view of the
original study is now extended to early 1982.
1. "Can Russia produce once again, under the direction of Zhdanov's succes
mirror of truth and beauty like that once fashioned by Pushkin, Lermontov,
Turgeniev, Tolstoy... ? Is one to conclude that, under a well-ordered Soviet system
is really no room for great individualist poets, . . . novelists, . . . painters, . . . fo
posers who write anything more highbrow than songs and operas with an immediat
even to the most untrained ear?" Alexander Werth (1973:13) wrote these remarks
about the events surrounding the 1948 Decree on Music of the Central Committee
Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.
2. The problem, if one ventures to identify an artist who is "one with the ideolog
to determine where or if the ideology thwarted the artistic criteria of the compos
Haydn, content for twenty-nine years with the system of royal patronage, inhib
working out the possibilities of the sonata form? Are his later London symphonies a s
exhibit of "freedom" from the constraints, presumably of the royal taste, when
changed a closed social situation in Esterhaza for the larger, primarily non-aris
audience of London? It does not seem so. But Haydn was a genius, thoroughly app
by the Prince, and his daily efforts were part of the "ideology" of the Prince's r
Fortunate Prince! Happy musician! But a twentieth-century symphonist, Dmitri S
kovich, with the state as his patron, declared "Symphonies are rarely written to order
is, if they are worthy to be called symphonies" (Volkov 1979:155). But the objective
patrons of these two composers were vastly different, though indeed those of the com
were similar. Compare Schwarz (119ff.) on Shostakovich's commissioned works (in
all his works were "commissioned"). See also Volkov:119, 158-9, 212.
3. For example, "Die Gedanken sind frei," from the sixteenth-century German
ant Wars; "Lillibullero," a satire against the British governor in Ireland sent by J

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"Yankee Doodle," by which the American colonists adapted a British

and "When This Cruel War Is Over," an American Civil War satire in ve
or the Blues; Whitman 1969: 6, 10, 33 and 42 resp. The 1960s produce
songs in the United States, some quite extended, for example, "Alice
Guthrie, the targets being "law and order" and the Vietnam War dr
Pop and rock songs were overwhelmingly protest songs against aliena
ecology; for example, at the Woodstock rock festival of 1969; and m
Reynolds, the Kingston Trio, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez and B
passim).
4. Verdi was attracted to Victor Hugo's play, Le Roi s'amuse (1
about the licentious King Francis I and his jester, Triboulet. (The play
Paris premiere until 1882.) Verdi and his librettist, Piave, were comp
emperor's censors in Venice to make many changes in the libretto, pa
appearance on stage of a supreme ruler whose amoral behavior p
bondage to his whims. The character of the king was downgraded to th
in Italy, certainly not in the sovereign state of France. Verdi endured a
ballo in maschera in 1859. Many of Verdi's thirty-six operas were
Austrian tyranny over the Italian people-Nabucco, Ernani (also afte
Foscari, Attila, I Vespri Siciliani, Luisa Miller, Aida, and others. See
198-202; Weaver 1975:193-4; Budden 1973:744ff.
5. Presumably Gulik is avowing the ideal; there was certainly mu
produced for pure entertainment, but the Confucian "ideal" is no less s
Socialist "ideal." See Shu Ching (Book of History) on the place of mus
promising youth in Confucian times (Legge/Chai 1967:I, 85, 87; II,
6. Lenin viewed literature as a superior means to mold thought, m
of the other arts, but he wanted to see the visual arts used promptly i
huge posters and monuments of revolutionary heroes. according to A
his friend and the first Commissar of Education (Lenin 1967:257). L
theatres, including the Bolshoi opera, to be "purged of any filth" b
suaded him that a sudden dissolution of the repertory would leave n
tionary music of the future was not yet at hand (ibid., 260-1). In 1913
"The Development of Workers' Choirs in Germany," praising the ef
songs as propaganda both in the quality and the message against "wag
cities (ibid., 78-9). Mao acted much more quickly than Lenin in brin
arts, but Mao reached ultimate power (1949) with a Party structure
7. Lenin: "Art belongs to the people.... Our workers and peas
thing better than spectacles. They are entitled to real great art. That is
public education and training on the biggest scale." Quoted by Clara
tions of Lenin" (Lenin 1967:253). Compare the views of Mao Zedong
at the Yenan Forum" cited below.
8. In this discussion, "revolution" means the Communist Party victory in 1949, not
the 1911 revolution in which a republic was first established.
9. Lenin confessed that listening to music like Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata,
which he called "amazing, superhuman music," affected him with sentimental feelings tha
he could not afford to hold with his responsibilities (1967:246-7).
10. The term, "socialist realism," first appeared as the title of an essay in 1933 by the
Soviet writer, Maxim Gorky. The following year the USSR Communist Party spokesman
Andrei Zhdanov, at the All Union Congress of Soviet Writers, set forth the aims of Sovie
artistic expression: "to depict reality in it revolutionary development," and called for works
"attuned to the epoch." As a national cultural policy Stalin further defined the dimension
of Soviet art as "cultures, national in form and Socialist in substance" (Schwarz 1972:110)
The term "socialist realism," like many expressions, was adopted and adapted by the
Chinese Communists. During the emotionalism of the Cultural Revolution the aim of art
(particularly on the stage) was to be "a combination of revolutionary realism and revolu-
tionary romanticism" (Mowry 1973:46).

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11. In Mao's major essay, "On New Democracy" (1

Stalin a total of nine times-and also Sun Yat-sen, father
Selected Works of Mao Zedong (hereafter /SW), II, 339-8
therein for the references.
12. For example, the closing of theatres, the censorship of certain works, the increasing
control of educational institutions, including conservatories, and the organization of great
national congresses of the artists to promulgate sanctioned cultural goals and policy. Par-
ticularly striking is the initiation of a devasting purge a generation after the founding of the
revolutionary government, which wrenched the cultural life of each country: in the USSR in
1946-1948 (Schwarz 1972:207, 219-20, 222-8), and in the PRC, the now discredited Cultural
Revolution of 1966-1976. Also parallel is an ideological experiment by means of a "thaw" in
artistic censorship-and the about-face that soon followed: in the USSR, the Resolution of
1932 (Schwarz:110), and in the PRC, "The Hundred Flowers Campaign" of 1956 (see
Crozier 1970:19-29). On both occasions multiformity was swiftly compressed into uni-
formity.
And there are parallel crises which became causes celebres: the condemnation of
Shostakovich's opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District in 1936 (Schwarz: 129; Volkov:36,
113-4); and Wu Han's opera (that is, the libretto, the music was traditional), Hai Jui Dis-
missed from Office in 1965 (tr., Huang 1972; and see Pusey 1969). The ban on each work was
lifted in later years. Mao also observed a parallel in the two nations' revolutionary histories
in his essay, "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship," in commemoration of the twenty-
eighth anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, June 30, 1949, the time
when total control of the country was secured (SW, IV:412-3).
13. An article, "A Study of Physical Education," which appeared in a liberal Peking
magazine, La Jeunesse. His earliest writing to appear in SW is "Analysis of the Various
Classes of the Chinese Peasantry and Their Attitude towards Revolution" (1926), I, 13-21.
A chronology appears in Ch'en 1970:163, and 166, respectively, for these citations.
14. Marx, "Great Asia's Potential," in the New York Daily Tribune, one of a series of
articles he wrote 1853-1860 (1951:1-2). Lenin, "The Awakening of Asia" (1913), Collected
Works (hereafter CW), v. 19, 85-6; "Backward Europe and Advanced Asia" (1913), ibid.,
"Better Fewer, But Better" (1923); v. 33, 487-8.
15. The first official English edition was Nineteen Poems in 1958 (Peking). Later of-
ficial editions were 1966 (39 poems) and 1976 (36). Three posthumous poems made public in
September 1978 are included in Nancy T. Lin, Reverberations: a New Translation of Com-
plete Poems of Mao Tse-tung (Hong Kong, Joint Publishing Co., 1980). See note 32.
16. For a firsthand opinion by Mao's actress-wife who taught at the academy, see
Witke:184-8. For another eyewitness account, by Liu Xuewei, see T. A. Hsia, "Twenty
Years after the Yenan Forum," in China Quarterly, No. 13, (January-March 1963), 226ff.
17. McDougall makes a meticulous comparison between the first editions and the 1953
and 1966 revised Chinese versions. A notable difference in emphasis, not in substance, was
Mao's position toward accepting prerevolutionary artistic models. In 1943 he spoke of the
works of "dead people and foreigners," to be used with discrimination. In the later versions
they become "the ancients and foreigners" whose works are instruction. Writers are urged
"to take over all the excellent tradition in literature and art." Attitude changed as the
Communist leaders changed from a band of rebels fighting the regime to the new ruling
class-and the heirs to this ancient cultural legacy (McDougal 1980:19-20, 8, 11, and else-
where). The Talks were commemorated in editorials in The People's Daily (Renmin ribao),
the official organ of the Party, on each tenth anniversary, May 23, in 1952, 1962 and 1972,
but also in 1967 and 1970, very likely because of the dogmatic emphasis on Mao's writings
during the Cultural Revolution. See Oxsenberg and Henderson (1982): ix, and the index to
"Literature and Art" (148) for this day in the years cited. For recollections and judgments
on the fortieth anniversary, see BR, May 24, 1982: 23-9, and May 31, 1982: 5-6.
18. Operas in the traditional style, that is, with prerevolutionary plots ("cleaned up")
and historic costumes (usually of the Ming dynasty) and the stereotype melodies are still a
favorite amusement. There is much evidence; a few recent references follow. Chung Kin

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Leung reported: "Out of twelve opera companies listed in the daily

14, 1979, ten were presenting traditional pieces," in "The Cantone
(Canton) in Chinoperl Papers, No. 9 (1979-80), 92. See also: Wome
1981 (Peking), 28, 34-5; Wu 1981: Peking Opera and Mei Lanfang
player of women's roles; a four-day festival of operas associated w
Beijing Review (hereafter BR), September 14, 1981, 28-9. Daily tele
traditional styles of opera. American film viewers who were fortu
films circulated in this country in late 1981 cannot have missed t
traditional musical styles, despite the revolutionary messages of t
selected films were produced between 1959 and 1980. One was abou
the twentieth century ("Two Stage Sisters"), another about a ninth
early revolutionist ("Third Sister Liu"), and one a biography of
musician who died in 1950. A longing for the classical from the West
in the revival of Verdi's La Traviata shortly after the Cultural Revolu
cautiously at first "to solicit opinions of the workers" in Beijing (B
but produced with no such equivocation in 1981, and conducted by
of China, November, 1981, 12-5)!
19. For example, Charles Sainte-Beuve: "The mission of art tod
to reflect and shine without interruption in a thousand hues the e
humanity ... ." from Premieres Lundis (Steegmuller 1963:394).
20. Mao might also have concurred with Plato's view: "'I hav
'that the devotees of unmitigated gymnastics turn out more brutal t
those of music softer than is good for them"' (Plato 1930:I, 289
21. The first English translation appeared in Schram 1974:84-9
22. Mao: "Contemporary China has grown out of the China of th
in our historical approach and must not lop off our history ....
munists are internationalists, but we can put Marxism into practice on
with the specific characteristics of our country and acquires a de
Any talk about Marxism in isolation from China's characteristics is
abstract, Marxism in a vacuum" ("The Role of the Chinese Comm
tional War" (1938), SW, II, 209). The conflict in shaping Comm
model was an ongoing problem in the Chinese Communist Party d
was further justification of the later break between the two nations a
"de-Stalinization" policies, which the Chinese Party viewed as "
from Socialist principles.
23. According to tradition Confucius's Six Arts (Liu Yi), which
master, were rites, music, archery, horsemanship, writing and ar
24. "Spring Festival Day on Education," a talk published in T
(Renmin Bao), February 13, 1964; tr. in Ch'en 1970:93, 95.
25. The slogan used by Mao is the title of an address by Lu Tin
Party Propaganda Department and Minister of Culture (English ed.
extract is in Crozier:20-1. Mao discusses the resulting controversy
Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People" (1957), P
26. In Communist Manifesto and Capital communism is termed
society whose fundamental principle is the full and free developm
(Tr. in Baxandall 1974:39).
27. For a brief historical survey see The New Grove (1980), v. 4
1981:17-53. Chinese history contains ample records of official mu
monies, ritual songs and dances, and orchestra music, all for a m
casions (Han 1979:1-8). The classic Shih Chin (Book of Odes), among
folk and court poems and forty temple hymns, dating presumably f
Legge 1960 (spelled She King). Another classic, Li Chi (Book of
describes the royal regulations for musical education (Legge/Chai 1
in civil court ceremonies, 261; for an annual grand concert, 266;
when two rulers meet, II, 274-6). In Shu Ching (Book of History)

86.59.13.237 on Wed, 24 Feb 2021 06:39:07 UTC
states that the ruler appoints a director of music "

(Legge 1960 (spelled Shoo King), Part II, Bk. I, v, 24). A
other ancient concepts is found in DeWoskin 1982, esp
28. And not only mankind flourishes with correct, h
and trees will grow luxuriantly; curling sprouts and bu
winged tribes will be active; horns and antlers will grow
revive; birds will breed and brood; the hairy tribes will m
will have no abortions, and no eggs will be broken or
ascribed to the power of music" (Legge/Chai 1967:II, 1
"K'wei said, 'Oh! when I strike the stone or tap the stone
one another to gambol, and all the chiefs of the officers b
the emperor himself made a song (Legge 1960:II, iv, 3
29. Of interest also are the remarks of the President
Music (Beijing) on the dichotomy of influence by Western
song simplicity and impromptu performance experience,
mentality, occasional "mystic religious preaching" an
"Zhao Feng on Pop Music" (BR, July 20, 1981, 28-9).
30. See also Gulik 1969 on the explicit and didactic progr
melodies, 88-100; the symbolism of terms and names, 10
"Sometimes even to every bar there are appended expla
find in a tune describing a beautiful mountain landscape
remark, 'Here one thinks of high mountains,' and under a
streams' " (88). See also DeWoskin 1982: Ch. VII.
31. For example, Song VIII, "The River God," and So
in Waley 1955:47-58). On "sacrifices to hills and rivers"
Legge 1960:II, ch. 1, par. 8.
32. Lieberman notes that this instrumental repertoir
tablishment of the PRC: "There was a renaissance of pu
its publications (114-5). At this writing the ch'in has
pre-Cultural Revolution artistic activities: BR, August 24
that discussed research societies, which have been estab
which was held in Beijing, and reported that the famous
recorded on a gilded copper record and sent into space
Voyager, in 1977 (29). (In the phonetic transliteration us
or guqin, meaning ancient zither.)
33. A few of Mao's Classical references are: (1) "Order
Anhwei Incident," an historical military incident cited i
1960), bk. XVI, ch. 1 (2), in SW, II, 456; "Stalin, Friend
sixtieth birthday), with a reference to the Book of Odes: "
response," SW, II, 335; (3) "Talk at an Enlarged Central
1974: Text 8, notes 2, 4, 5, and p. 321, in which Mao dr
Ching (Book of History). (The reference in Schram, note
opera based on an historical incident.); (4) "The United
where Mao quotes Confucius (Analects): "Haste brings
desirous to have things done quickly," bk. XIII, ch. 1
"Swimming" (1956), Beijing ed., 1976, 31-32, and Bar
Analects, bk. IX, ch. 16. (See Crozier 1970:52-3, 152n.
losophy" (1964), in Schram 1974:213-5, 220; Mao comme
classics and makes several judgments both positive an
foundation.
34. Note the theological background assumed in order to understand his editorial from
Xinhua (Hsin Hua) News Agency, August 14, 1949: "Imperialists Will Never Become
Buddhas Till Their Doom" (Schram 1969:282).
35. For the plots of twenty traditional operas see Scott 1959; also Wu 1981:99-123. For
an analysis and chronical of drama reform after the 1949 revolution see Daniel Shi-Peng

86.59.13.237 on Wed, 24 Feb 2021 06:39:07 UTC
Yang's unpublished dissertation, "The Traditional Theatre of China an

Setting" (University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1968), esp. chs. II and
36. See Lieberman 1975:114-46, on classical ch'in compositions that
on poetic forms. Ch'in publications also offered a text underlying the
panying it. In modern times the text is not sung, though the player may
plays (114). Liang 1972:118 states that the practice of ch'in and voice s
early Ch'ing dynasty (that is, about 1700). He analyzes the oldest exta
"Yu-Lan" (Elegant Orchid) from the T'ang Dynasty and suggests t
perhaps much more complex in earlier times, and that it has evolved
style during the last thousand years" (208).
Pian (1967:35, and 73-4 resp.) cites "textless melodies" to which tex
and a "dance suite with vocal accompaniment." Levis (1963:191) quotes
authority, Hsui Ta-ch'un (1693-1771) on the seven points to observe i
music, the third of which-non-musical, it might seem-is, "You mu
monial connection, that is, for worship, for writing to friends, for mil
Mao, whose knowledge of Chinese poetic forms-like all his ear
traditional, followed the method of "filling the form," as indicated b
poems; for example, "To the melody of Shen Yuan Ch'un" for his p
the melody of Yu Chia Ao," for "The First Encirclement" (both tr
330, respectively). This is not a literal meaning: the ancient "melody"
bers of characters, the rhyme and speech tones. See Mao 1976:53.
disappeared long ago. During the Cultural Revolution one of the pleth
issued in praise of Mao was "Poems of Chairman Mao Set to Music
Company, Beijing, No. WM-2165), which contained seven of his poem
cited above), set to music and harmonized in Western style, and perf
chorus with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra of Beijing.
37. In a recent article, "The Meaning of the Meaning of Music,
argues that "all music is programmatic, explicitly or implicitly, and in
The Musical Quarterly (1980) 66 (1):3.
38. The story is told in Scott 1979:75-6 ("The Restoration of Pea
tale was made into a full-length animated film in the 1950s. All versio
suppressed during the Cultural Revolution; see BR, October 26, 19
Pictorial, 1981 (1):17.
39. Exceptions are for traditional instrumental pieces that indicat
tunes, for example, "Three Variations on Six Beats" (Han 1979:12). Suc
useless for a socialist message. Melody formulas for Chinese oper
"abstract" titles to identify tempo and rhythmic pattern, as yuan p
clapper rhythm" (but note, liu sh'ui, "flowing water"), but these are n
(1978:26) remarks that "the habit of writing program notes for a mu
well established around 170 A.D." Perhaps there is a cultural habit for
musical sound parallel to the Chinese preference for picturesque w
studies in early Chinese Buddhism which show that most abstract
changed into concrete terms, for example, "nature" became "eyes,
came "original face," and so on (19). Certainly abstract painting was ali
visual arts-and remains so up to the present in the PRC because (agai
controlled, didactic meaning.
40. At the height of the Cultural Revolution lavishly illustrated Engl
works were available for export, as well as recordings in the Chinese
are presumed "out of print," including The East Is Red (see the fo
catalogs of the importers, such as China Books and Periodicals, San F
and elsewhere.
41. During this period The East Is Red, an historical pageant, which appeared in 194
and was later expanded and much performed, was banned because it did not include enou
praise of Mao. It is still banned (1982), because it now implies deification of the late cha
man. See "On the Role of the Individual in History" in BR, August 11, 1980, 17-21. For t
1964 view see Mackerras 1975:204.

86.59.13.237 on Wed, 24 Feb 2021 06:39:07 UTC
42. Lin Mohan, Vice Minister of Culture and Vice Cha

of Literature and the Arts, who led a delegation of mus
States. His remarks accompanied the showing of a film of
the reopened conservatories of the PRC, particularly
during the Music Educators National Conference, Miam
The film was titled, "Budding Blossoms in Spring"-th
allusion to the young children, and "spring," the rationa
after the extremes of the Gang of Four. It was thus
Hundred Flowers Blossom." The very young performe
mental music were indeed astonishing, but there wer
evidence of the loss of that part of a generation beca
education. (Another member of the delegation was Zh
43. For the refutation see "How Our Revolutionary
1977a:66-72), and by the same author, "What Chiang C
See also the following article (anonymous) in the same
"How Premier Zhou Promoted Revolutionary Art and Lit
(1964) opera version of "The White Haired Girl" is cited i
on the cover).
44. See Domes 1978:12-3. A succession of articles appea
into the trial. See also Hsin Chi 1977.
45. St. Louis, Missouri, November, 1981. Mao had already warned against this in the
"Talks at the Yenan Forum." "To study Marxism means to apply the dialectical materalist
and historical materialist viewpoint in our observation of the world of society and of litera-
ture and art; it does not mean writing philosophical lectures into works of literature and art"
(SW, III, 94).
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Music as Propaganda: Art at the Command of Doctrine in the People's Republic of China

Author(s): Arnold Perris

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/850880

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T he political control of music and other arts for propaganda by total-

Final version, rec'd: 6/9/82

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behind the advance of the doctrine); nor does the w

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socioeconomic conditions in which they were

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which might be purified and shaped to serve

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we find his confirmation of the value of the past. In a

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fighters in the army, workers in the factorie

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circulate so easily and quickly among the masses at

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155-6). It is titled "The Three Main Rules o

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1. Rev- o- lu- tion'ry ar- my men must know,

I. Dis'- pline's Three Rules, Eight Points for At- ten-tion:

1. First, o- bey or- ders in all of our ac- tions,

I. March in step, to win vic- to- ry;

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Central Asia, Korea and India. "The playin

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1. There is historical precedence in China for a nation

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value to this traditional concept: it was not th

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in the instrumental repertory, primarily based on pu

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over a Silent Lake, an "ancient Cantonese ins

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with a doctrinaire interpretation, for example, Monke

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the art, but it contradicts artistic popularism, th

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gested that Mme. Jiang was the only appropriate succe

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Since the fall of the Gang of Four a range

This article is an expansion of a paper read at the annual meeting

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"Yankee Doodle," by which the American colonists adapted a British

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11. In Mao's major essay, "On New Democracy" (1

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Leung reported: "Out of twelve opera companies listed in the daily

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states that the ruler appoints a director of music "

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Yang's unpublished dissertation, "The Traditional Theatre of China an

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42. Lin Mohan, Vice Minister of Culture and Vice Cha

BR Beijing Review. Weekly (Before 1979, Peking Review). Beijing.

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Gulik, Robert H. van

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Pian, Rulan Chao

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